Saturday, February 17, 2007
Originally posted on Wei Zhong's Online Diary. All work contained in this post that is the original creation of the author is licensed under a Creative Commons License.The release of the O Level results last Friday at RI was one of the most emotionally charged events I was involved in in a quite a while, and on a related note, I felt that I had a slightly deeper understanding into the human condition after that. The tears, the expletives, the hugs, the laughter, the pats, the handshakes... the event was, above all, a social one. Were we total strangers, or even private candidates receiving our results in isolation, the affair would have been drastically different.
But more on that later.
4M Lunch!
4M met for lunch before the release of our results. Even when I was slightly late, I only saw about three people waiting at Bishan MRT Station. More people joined us later, and we decided to go to Pastamania for our lunch. At Pastamania, our initial group of 12 almost doubled in size to result in an impressive turnout of 23. The whole class, except Chang Xing and Koay, was there, and it really was quite surprising that so many of us happened to be free.
Each of us saw each other, but due to the counter-style layout of the tables, the chatter was mostly between two or three people, and largely within our old cliques. But something was better than nothing, and in retrospect, it was a rather good bargain for the amount of energy we have remaining to keep our Sec 3/Sec 4 class together. And it was wonderful being able to talk to Daryl, Auyong and the rest of the 4M people after a long period of non-contact.
After the 4M lunch, which happened to be my first all-guys mass gathering in 2007, we proceeded together to RI for the collection of our O Level results. 4M took a class photograph before I went around the school taking photographs of random people. The rest stayed in the hall reading our yearbooks, stacks of which had been placed in the hall.
HOD
Nearer to 2.30 pm, more and more people entered the hall and soon nearly the whole batch taking the O Levels for Higher Mother Tongue was there. Our dear Chinese HOD went to the rostrum of our newly refurbished hall to read out the statistics pertaining to RI's performance this year: a pass rate of 94.3% as compared to the national average of 94.6%, a distinction (A1/A2) rate of 48.2%, as compared to the national average of 49.2%, and a mean subject grade of 2.99. At the same time, she, to quote Hwee Leong, "still spared no effort in suaning those who scored badly".
It was actually rather sad to end off our encounters with the HOD with her usual nonchalance and acrimoniousness in full display. To be honest, my experience with Higher Chinese and with the O Levels would have been a lot more pleasant were teachers like Mrs Eunice Tay our HOD instead. I'm just thankful that her speech happened before our results were released when none of us really care about what she said, and not after, when it would have really stung those who performed badly during the examinations.
In any case, she gave the command to our Chinese teachers to release our O level results to the classes. We were supposed to go up to a desk and initial against our name while collecting our results slip, in register order. Meanwhile, our classes were seated in one long row in register order in front of the desk. Liu lao shi was no longer present, and we collected our results from Cai Ying Hua lao shi instead. She was in charge of distributing the results slip to 4L and 4M, and 4L people collected their results slips first.
Alric: I want to sit down here forever ah!
Reactions and support
Aaron Chee was the first in these two classes to collect his results slip, and I think he got an A1. In his rather apparent ecstasy, he was busy shaking the hands of the first few people in 4M. As we'd found out later, things were very different when everyone got their grades, and Aaron's handshakes wouldn't have been very possible after each of us had our own grades to bother about.
In a few minutes, Cai lao shi got to distributing 4M's results slip, and some of the 4M people started crowding around the desk. Each of us took a few seconds to initial against our names and collect our results slip, which Cai lao shi placed flat on the table top for everyone to see.
For all the hype and people's reaction to their results, it was easy to forget that a good number of people remained outwardly calm as they collected their results. I happened to belong to this group of people, despite the fact that an A1 was rather unexpected, given my grade of B3 in the prelims. I was rather exhilarated (even though I didn't show it) for a few moments, before the positive feelings disappeared. Emotionally, the deal was rather unfair; the happiness from getting an A1 faded in a while, but I would take quite some time to get over any grade below B3.
Still, some people developed rather strong reactions to an unexpected score, and rather strong expletives began to come out, despite the presence of a teacher.
I shall not mention anyone's grades and reactions here specifically, but I observed that those around me disappointed over their grades exhibited considerable restraint in expressing their emotions.
In fact, no one around me cried over their results; if they did, they didn't do so openly. But disappointment and sadness in some of our friends was still visible in the reddened, watery eyes and their general facial expressions. By the time we noted our friends' disappointment, the rest of us toned our emotions and the celebration of our results down. Some of us gave hugs and pats and sat around these friends in silence. I certainly hope our efforts did help those who didn't get their desired results feel better, at least by a little bit.
Back to our teacher
On the spot, I compiled the grades of the 4M people in hope of letting Liu lao shi know about 4M's performance. Doing this was a challenge as not everyone got the results they desired or expected; understandably, for some, it was difficult to be as happy-go-lucky as Kern ("Why got no microphone? I want to announce my good results."). At that time, I had to depend on other people to know the results of certain people.
I made a call to Liu lao shi soon after to give her a summary of our performance, as well as to update her on our key reactions to our results. It must be regrettable for her that she couldn't have been there to know our results and witness our reactions for herself. I would, if I were her; all this consummates the year-long teaching experience, and our journey together.
I was slightly disappointed that 4M broke up into our various groups to go for our various activities shortly after our results were released. People left the hall gradually after the results were released, while I sat around and spoke to people concerning their results and what happened in the afternoon itself.
The day in perspective
A week has passed since the release of our O Level results, and most of us should have gotten over our grades. With the passing of this episode, Chinese has ceased to be an academic issue for most of us. For some of us, this event was marked with pleasant surprises, while for others, it was unfortunately mixed with some amount of anguish. For the latter group, I truly hope that the support of your friends has made things better for you somewhat.
As we move on with our lives, may we draw support from whatever emotions we experienced last Friday as motivation in our future examinations. When we collect our A Level results one day, two years down the road, I'm certain that our performance will occasion joy, not sorrow, in us.
Related posts
Wei Zhong @ 2:48 pm
